And in the U.S., the Big Three are lone wolves — fear of exposing trade secrets means they seldom work together, on green cars or much of anything. There’s no such problem in Japan, where not only is the government united in support, but Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are willing to collaborate when it makes sense.

On Monday, the four Japanese giants said they’re united on a major expansion of the electric car charging network in Japan. It’s a big ramp-up, with chargers to go into all sorts of public places, including shopping malls and family restaurants, service stations and tea houses. Helping make it happen are $666 million in Japanese government subsidies for 2013 alone. According to the automakers, “Each prefecture in Japan is drawing up a vision for the use of the subsidies.” The business owners themselves won’t be heavily out of pocket, because the car companies will bear at least part of the installation and maintenance costs.

EVs have run into some headwinds in Japan, not least because the Fukushima disaster gave electric power utilities a bad name. The problem is worse for energy companies with nukes such as EV-friendly Tokyo Electric Power, whose plug-in Mitsubishi is seen below. Fortune also quotes a McKinsey survey to conclude that “up to a third of Japanese customers for EVs say they would not buy again. They were put off by their high price, higher electric bills, and the considerable bother of locating places to charge their cars.” The Japanese charging expansion should address at least the last point, and subsidized home chargers will help ease the other concerns.

The U.S. remains the world leader not only in electric cars on the road but also in installed chargers. But there are encouraging developments in Europe, with Estonia and Holland investing in national networks. China hasn’t achieved liftoff yet, but when it does, watch out. And now Japan’s auto industry and its political leaders are moving together to put money and business clout behind a big expansion.

Here, on video, is a closer look at an EV charging station in a Japanese shopping center parking lot, where charging is free!

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